The end of the school year has finally arrived. You can start fantasizing about the novels you'll read, the closets you'll clean, the places you'll go. However, pulsing in the recesses of your mind is a whisper: You know you should plan next year.
It would be so useful to reflect on what you did this year, to pull together some resources for a new unit, and to crack open that book on teaching writing that everyone says you should read.

In those final days of school, contemplating spending part of the summer planning sent you scurrying to schedule root canals. But here's the raw teacher truth: The summer is the perfect time to plan. Even three days of work can yield months of results. Once you start, you'll get into it, and you'll thank yourself next year.

The following are some thoughts about how to plan, when to plan, and what to plan so your time is fun and productive and invigorating:

How, What, and When

Get paid, if possible. Your principal may have some money left over for professional development and may be able to pay you extended contract hours. Ask.

Get units if you need them. There are accredited institutions that offer credit for planning time, and acquired units will advance you on the salary schedule. Many colleges, including the University of San Diego, offer courses online through their continued studies programs. Before enrolling, check with your human resources department to make sure the units from the institution count.

Get a buddy. Choose a colleague who also wants to plan. It's a lot more fun if someone is sitting next to you and the peer pressure will keep you from bolting. If you can find another instructor who teaches the same subject or grade and wants to coplan, that's ideal.

Get started planning right away. I strongly recommend that you don't schedule planning for the last week of summer vacation. Even though by the end of school, I'm always exhausted, I'm also often in a superproductive zone where I'm simultaneously reflecting on the past year and planning the following year.

Whenever I've had to go to professional development during this time, I'm always amazed at how much I get done and how engaged I am with the material. It's tempting to just take off into summer la-la land, but try using the first week to plan for the next year. You'll be impressed with how juicy this time can be.

Plan Your Planning

Set goals. I often hope to accomplish way more than I can. At the end of the summer, I just feel bad about what I didn't do. Write down what you'd like to get done, and then revise that list for what you think you can realistically get done. There's a lot of useful stuff online about setting goals. Take a few minutes to read about SMART goals.

Brainstorm. Jot down all the topics that come to mind. You might have a long list of things you want to plan, or should plan. Narrow the list down by using the fun factor: Go through it and star everything that looks like it would be fun to plan and teach. Then go back through it and circle the items that seem like they'd be really fun. Go with the topics that make you feel tingly.

One summer, I needed to plan seventh-grade English and history. I needed to learn more about teaching grammar and academic literacy, to read about a dozen young adult novels, and learn about medieval Europe. The Middle Ages won out. My idea of fun was to read everything I could about the bubonic plague.

Project Learning

Project learning rates really high on the fun factor -- in planning it and teaching it. And for students, it's the ultimate learning experience. Summer is a perfect time to plan a really great unit. Here's an article from Edutopia.org about project learning that might give you some ideas.

The summer I immersed myself in the plague was really a thrill. In the end, it was part of a unit about how societies deal with death and illness and how epidemics change political-economic structures, social systems, and religions.

Our final project was a living museum -- a dramatization of different scenes in a medieval European village during the plague. This unit was one of the most successful units I taught that year, due in large part to the planning I'd done over the summer. And for me, reading about epidemics constituted major summer fun.

Anything Will Do

Any planning you do will be rich and useful. Even if you plan only three days, the process you use, the mental space you will have -- not cluttered by a hundred other things to do -- will give you practice in planning that will impact you in the following year. Planning, like all aspects of teaching, is something we get better at the more we do. But remember, teaching -- and learning -- should be fun.

What would you like to plan this summer? What are your suggestions for making planning fun? Please share your thoughts and ideas.

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I love the ideas and suggestions that were given. I especially like the idea of planning with a buddy. We are implementing a co-teaching program next year and next week we have an opprotunity to have 2 professional development days to work with our co-teacher for next year and work on just planning. I am only co-teaching for math and I feel like these 2 days will be a great help to get us ahead and feeling confident in teaching in a way that will be beneficial to our students.

Thank you for all your planning ideas- if only I had read this at the beginning of the summer. I am hoping to revamp my entire curriculum over the course of the next year and I want to make it as engaging and fun for my students as possible. I am hoping to be able to collaborate with teachers of different content areas. It is still only the beginning of August so if I can get into my classroom for a couple hours for a few days that would help! Thanks again for the ideas!

Thank you for all your planning ideas- if only I had read this at the beginning of the summer. I am hoping to revamp my entire curriculum over the course of the next year and I want to make it as engaging and fun for my students as possible. I am hoping to be able to collaborate with teachers of different content areas. It is still only the beginning of August so if I can get into my classroom for a couple hours for a few days that would help! Thanks again for the ideas!

I fully agree with you Elena, on planning ahead during summer period. Not only does it make you have ease of mind but it will give you a good head start. I feel that our job is never ending and the little time we get we plan for projects, curriculam and activities. I think, the most important factor in this career is setting goals with a time frame. I think if we can have that principle in place, our job would be less chaotic and stressful.

I would like to work on skills work which focuses on Literacy and Maths Quest.
Early literacy is often considered the most important academic skill in school and maths is a part of everyday life and it is critical to introduce this at an early age. I believe special methods and activities will assist children to develop early numeracy skills and literacy skills.
As I already mention besides going to school, I will set target goals to plan for the curriculam. I will spend alot of time planning for materials and concepts so that what I teach in class is developmentally approriate. After I set target goals, I can keep track of my milestones. Following that I propritize my time for lesuire, family and work.
Shanthi

I fully agree with you Elena, on planning ahead during summer period. Not only does it make you have ease of mind but it will give you a good head start. I feel that our job is never ending and the little time we get we plan for projects, curriculam and activities. I think, the most important factor in this career is setting goals with a time frame. I think if we can have that principle in place, our job would be less chaotic and stressful.

I would like to work on skills work which focuses on Literacy and Maths Quest.
Early literacy is often considered the most important academic skill in school and maths is a part of everyday life and it is critical to introduce this at an early age. I believe special methods and activities will assist children to develop early numeracy skills and literacy skills.
As I already mention besides going to school, I will set target goals to plan for the curriculam. I will spend alot of time planning for materials and concepts so that what I teach in class is developmentally approriate. After I set target goals, I can keep track of my milestones. Following that I propritize my time for lesuire, family and work.

I just finished up my second year as well. I agree that it's hard to find motivation to plan during the summer. Last summer I worked at a camp and had no time to plan for the coming year, but I hope to change that this summer. Planning a goal for myself and working towards it in steps is going to be the best way to be successful in planning this summer.

There is nothing more fun for my students, classroom and ME than adding music and singing to the daily lesson plans! Summer is the time I review the 2000+ songs at Acadamiacs.com (http://www.acadamiacs.com/) and choose the ones that match what I will be doing during the school year. It's great to link share within this interactive site too. But the best part is that my students learn the core curriculum faster, more thoroughly and have a MUCH easier time recalling it when test time rolls around in the spring. Go to http://www.acadamiacs.com/ !! It;s an educator;s BEST FRIEND!